john boehner, the house speaker delivers his comments and now the president a couple hours before he meets with several of the nation's ceos on the economy and the fiscal cliff. let's go down to washington and get some reaction from our john harwood, who's been listening in. john, i think it's fair to say that the house speaker sounded a bit more conciliatory today, saying things like he's willing to put revenue on the table, yet again he's optimistic a deal can be reached. i'm not sure the president sounded so much. >> reporter: what you heard there, scott, was the president trying to leverage his advantage in public opinion. remember a couple things, first he just won the election. second of all, his position on raising taxes on top earners is very popular in the country, well over 60% of the american people say they want that to happen. you've begun to hear some republicans say they ought to do what the president just asked for. tom cole, a conservative congressman from oklahoma, former executive director of the republican national committee. he said yesterday republicans should j